ART WITH MS K

Woven Animals

First graders studied animals in their PBL unit this spring and I thought a woven animal would be a great cross-curricular experience! This ended up being a kind of twist on the woven alligators I have done before but with more choice and voice. I was apprehensive about this at first because it is more open ended but just like kindergartener’s clay animals I was pleasantly surprised and extremely impressed!

We began by creating painted paper using the primary colors and white. We talked about mixing secondary colors and tints. Students used the other end of the paintbrush to “draw” designs, lines, and shapes into their painting.

The next day, we created a weaving. Students had already been studying their animals in their home room classes and were able to answer the question: What color is your animal mostly? They picked out a piece of construction paper to represent their animal and created a loom to weave. They cut their painting into strips of paper to use as the weaving pieces.

On the third day, we talked about how animal’s body parts are made out of shapes. We talked about the different shapes of each animal and I demonstrated how to cut and glue other pieces of construction paper to add details, even pop-up details! I think first graders did an absolutely fantastic job with these, they have so much personality and the level of engagement, excitement, and motivation was so high because of the cross-curricular connection.

Whales with curly 3D water coming out of the blow holes:

Foxes:

Koalas:

Komodo dragons:

Rabbits:

Sharks:

A tree frog:

A jaguar:

And my personal fave, pink flamingos:

I can’t even describe how proud I am of the kiddos for creating these, they are absolutely magnificent!